Deadly winter storm hits US northeast

A man clears snow with a snow blower in the South Bronx
section of New York City. REUTERS/Mike Segar

People across the northeastern United States are digging
out after a heavy snowfall that grounded flights, closed
schools and government offices, caused at least three deaths
and left the region in the grip of dangerously low
temperatures.

Boston was hard-hit by the first major winter storm of 2014,
getting nearly 18 inches (45 cm) of snow, while some towns
north of New England's largest city saw close to 2 feet (60
cm) of accumulation.

Major cities from Washington, D.C., to Portland, Maine, were
slammed, with New York's Manhattan island getting 6 inches
(15 cm) of snow and parts of the borough of Queens seeing
more than 10 inches (26 cm) of fresh powder.

While plows made easy work of the powdery snow to clear roads
and runways, authorities warned residents to expect unusually
cold weather across the Midwest and Northeast.

Embarrass, Minnesota notched a reading of -36 degrees
Fahrenheit (-38 Celsius) that stood as the lowest temperature
recorded in the United States outside Alaska on Friday,
according to the National Weather Service.

"Temperatures tonight and tomorrow are expected to be
extremely low, and dangerously so," said Massachusetts
Governor Deval Patrick. "These are dangerous conditions."

The forecast overnight low for Boston was -4 F (-20 C) while
New York looked for a low of 3 F (-16 C).

New York City's Department of Homeless Services went to "code
blue," doubling the number of vans patrolling streets to seek
people who needed shelter and streamlining the check-in
process for homeless shelters.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, just outside Boston, Tom Klein
took a break from shoveling and said that a life in New
England had accustomed him to harsh winter weather.

"I love a good snowstorm," the 60-year-old co-owner of a
small manufacturing company said. "I don't mind shoveling.
I've never minded shoveling."

Some 2,452 U.S. flights were canceled and 4,012 were delayed
on Friday, according to FlightAware.com, which tracks air
traffic.

Airports across the region warned travelers to expect
residual delays as they cleared a backlog of flights.

"We now have all our airfields - runways and taxiways -
clear," said Ed Freni, aviation director for Boston's Logan
International Airport. "We will be back to normal operations
by tomorrow."

STORM-RELATED DEATHS

The weather was a factor in at least three deaths.

In Kentucky, a 50-year-old woman died on Thursday morning
when she lost control of her car on an icy road near South
Williamson, according to state police.

Police recovered the body of a 71-year-old woman suffering
from Alzheimer's disease who had wandered out in the rural
western New York State town of Byron on Thursday night,
improperly dressed for the single-digit temperatures,
according to the Genesee County Sheriff's Office.

A Philadelphia city worker was killed after a machine he was
using was crushed by a mound of rock salt, media said.

New York's new mayor, Bill de Blasio, started his day
shoveling the walk in front of his Brooklyn brownstone - a
task his wife had said their 16-year-old son Dante would
handle.

Dante turned up later, not being an early riser, his father
said at a briefing.

Asked what grade he would give his teen-aged son, de Blasio
said: "I give Dante an A for effort and a D for punctuality."

De Blasio, who has pledged to address issues of inequality in
New York, focused on the plight of homeless people during his
weather briefings, saying city agencies stepped up outreach
efforts to get needy people off the streets and into shelter
during the dire cold.

He urged New Yorkers to keep an eye out for people who might
be in danger and to contact city authorities if need be.

In Washington, the Office of Personnel Management told
hundreds of thousands of federal workers they could work from
home or take a leave because of the storm. The United Nations
in New York and federal courts in New York, New Jersey, and
Boston shut down. Schools closed across much of the region.

Not all New Yorkers had the option of staying home.

"The rent is too high. I can't close because of a storm,"
said Nelson Martinez, who was working at his Brooklyn grocery
store, packing ice-melting salt from large bags into smaller
sizes to sell.

"I'm just trying to make some extra money off it and turn a
bad situation around," he said.

The Midwest braced for a bitter cold stretch from the weekend
into early next week, as well as blizzard conditions in North
Dakota and parts of South Dakota and Minnesota.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton on Friday ordered all public
schools statewide to close on Monday due to the forecast
extreme low temperatures. It will be the first time Minnesota
public schools will be closed statewide since January 1997.

Forecasters called for a low of -26 degrees F (-32 C) in
Minneapolis on Sunday night and a Monday high of -17 F (-27
C).

A possible winter storm was headed to the Ohio River Valley,
including Indiana, on Sunday, with Detroit also facing a
possible foot (30 cm) of snowfall.